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|  | | September 20 2016 07:56:16 PM EST | Jan Magnussen PR 2016 |
| After 3 wins in a row for Corvette Racing, they avoided BoP adjustments going into COTA, although others were given some performance back. Ferrari was given some extra boost and fuel capacity. BMW was given a 10kg weight break and 0.5mm refueling restrictor increase. Ford was give a 1mm refueling restrictor reduction.
Going into the final 2 rounds of the 2016 championship, it is going down to two teams. The #4 Corvette and the #67 Ford GT.
The #67 Ford GT took the pole position, with the Corvettes back in 6th and 8th. Come race day, the #62 Ferrari owned the track, only rivaled by the Porsches on occasion.
The #62 Ferrari, with 10 minutes left in the race and a 10 second lead, suffered an electrical glitch and had to make an unscheduled pit stop, effectively throwing away the easy victory at their home track.
The #67 and #4 had a mid pack battle when the Ford make contact with the Vette. The Ford suffered a front right suspension failure. This allowed the #4 Corvette to grow the points gap despite a lackluster performance, finishing P5.
With the Ferrari dropping off the podium, this promoted the #3 Corvette to 3rd place. This is the 2nd podium in a row for the #3.
VIDEO: 2016 COTA Qualifying
VIDEO: 2016 COTA Race Broadcast
The 2016 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship all goes down to the final round at Petit Le Mans. The #4 holds a 7 point lead over the #67 Ford in the Weathertech championship. The #4 Corvette also holds a 1 point lead over the #67 Ford in the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Championship.
ANTONIO GARCIA
"The further we went into the weekend, the better the Corvette was. From the first practice through the warmup and race, we never stopped working on it. At points, we made some big swings on the setup side because we had nothing to lose. At some point we found our way a little bit. The first surprise was that in qualifying, we weren’t as far off the pace as we thought. The warmup was the same. It was very hard, especially with traffic. At the end, I think we had a Corvette that could have challenged the race winners. We’re looking forward to Road Atlanta now and wrapping up the Manufacturer’s Championship for Chevrolet. We have a really good chance, and I really want to win that race. I’ve come close a couple of times so that will be my focus."
JAN MAGNUSSEN
"It was a pleasant little surprise. I think that it’s a good couple of spots better than I thought we were going to be. The car was quite good in my stint. We were able to kind of keep up with the guys in front, whereas I thought we would be out of it real fast looking at the practice times and qualifying. But the race car was pretty good I have to say… better than I thought it was going to be. I’m happy for the result. I’m happy for Corvette Racing and Chevrolet getting closer to that manufacturer championship."
OLIVER GAVIN
"This could be a real turning point for us in the championship. I think we will have to go to Petit Le Mans and get a seventh or an eighth place if the No. 67 was to win. It’s not a super comfortable cushion, but we just need to execute at Petit. I think we just need to be smart. We weren’t the greatest today, we weren’t the fastest. We were battling with the car a little bit and we made a couple of changes during the race. One was the wrong way and the other one was, I think, back in the right direction. But we need to go back and look at the data to see where we were missing it. Ultimately, we came away with scoring good points. We have extended our lead in the championship and at this time of the year that is all you need to be doing. You just need to be executing, getting the points on the board and extending our points lead. Looking at all the practice sessions, all the qualifying and everything that we did, I really didn’t think we were going to be coming away with extending our points lead over the No. 67. But we have, and it’s positive. We move forward and we go to Petit very positive."
TOMMY MILNER
"Coming away with the points lead we have was best-case scenario. It’s not really how I would have liked to have gotten that points lead. We struggled all day today and really all weekend… just looking for pace and just sort of comfort driving the car. That part wasn’t so much fun, but yeah, we lucked out today for sure. We definitely had, as Olly (Gavin) said, we’ve had either all of the luck in the world or none of it. Today it looked like we had none and then we had all of it pretty quickly there. Part of me feels bad for the No. 67 guys, but that is kind of a bummer way to lose some points. But I can’t say I’m too unhappy about it. We’ve all fought really hard all year long and some races we’ve had some good races and so have they. Now it comes down to Petit Le Mans where the gap is fairly large, but we still need to execute for the whole race. We certainly can’t just jog across the finish line there; we still have to push hard. It will be a big challenge for sure, but we are in a good spot."
FIA WEC at COTA
After scoring the overall Prototype victory in the IMSA race with brother Jordan, Ricky Taylor joined Larbre Competition for the 6 hr round of FIA WEC at Circuit of the Americas. The team scored a 3rd place podium finish in the very competitive GTE-AM class.
PODCAST: Sportscar 365 - Double Stint: Weekend Recap - Ricky Taylor Interview
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